Mensa Otabil - Living As Christ Lived
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1 John 2, verses 5 and 6: «But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him: He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.» John is speaking very strongly to the church; he’s not making it easy for us at all. He’s not telling us we can live the Christian life any way we please — that’s not Christianity. He’s given us what Jesus taught, and so he tells us that when we keep His word, when we obey God’s word, then the love of God is perfected in us. What does that mean? It means that God’s love matures in us. So one of the most important marks of obeying God’s word is that we begin to walk in love or act in love. We do things that are loving, things that are good, things that are gracious. We treat people well; we even treat people who don’t like us, our enemies, well. Remember Jesus said that will be the mark of His disciples, and John says when we obey Him, that is what we begin to see: we walk in love, we act right, we do the right thing.
Then he tells us another way we show that we are Christians, apart from obeying His word and seeing His love manifested in us, is that we walk as Christ walked. What does it mean to walk like Jesus Christ? Of course, we were not there; I didn’t see Jesus walking, so I don’t know His walking style or gait. That’s not what John is talking about. Neither does he mean that when we must walk as Christ walked, we should also go and choose 12 disciples and be crucified on the cross and die. He’s not even in this context talking about the miracles of Jesus-that does not mean we cannot do the works of Jesus; we can, He told us we should. But that’s not what he’s talking about here; he has a different idea in mind when he says «walk as Jesus walked.» Not «do,» but «walk as Jesus walked.»
So it’s important to understand the context. What does it mean to walk as Jesus walked? It means that we must imitate Jesus in some ways, and there are two vital ways that throughout 1 John, John talks about that we must imitate Jesus. First, in complete obedience to God. Jesus walked in complete obedience to God the Father; He said, «That’s what I do. I see my Father do it; that’s what I do.» And in Gethsemane, He says, «Not my will, but Yours be done,» exhibiting total surrender to the will of the Father. That is the first thing He wants us to do: to totally surrender our lives to the Father and totally obey Him in every aspect of our life. Now, that’s a very tough expectation because our lives are not that easy to live. If we want to obey God, it will make our lives a little challenging, but that’s what the Holy Spirit is there for-to help us progressively live our lives the way Jesus lived His life in total obedience to God in every area of life, not just in one area while neglecting another. I am not perfect; I don’t think you are perfect either, but that is our aim: we want to walk as Jesus walked.
The second way is loving and serving people; that’s how Jesus walked. He loved people; He didn’t condemn people. He reached out to people and had a heart of love and compassion for everyone, even those who were nailing Him to the cross. He said, «Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.» To the thief on the cross, He said, «You’ll be with Me in Paradise» when he repented. So you see the love of Jesus even in the most painful season of His life; what oozes out of Him is love. I mean, Jesus could have hung on the cross and rained curses and insults on those who were crucifying Him, condemning them to generations unborn, but love is what came out. They were hurting Him, and the only thing that oozes out is love. So John says to walk as Christ walked-in what ways? In total obedience to God and in loving and serving people. If we commit to that, the whole world will know that we are disciples of Jesus Christ because that is how He lived His life. May the love of Christ manifest in our lives.
Let’s pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, help me to live my life as Christ lived. Use me to demonstrate Your love to the world. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»